clark



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

RICHARDSON P. CLARK, OF JOHNSTOWN, NEW YORK.

APPLE-PARERI.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 25,489, dated September 20, 1859'.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, RICHARDSON P. CLARK, of the village of Johnstown, in the county of Fulton and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improved Apple- Paring Machine; and I do hereby declare that the following contains a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making a part of this specification, in which- Figure l is a plan, and Fig. 2 an elevation of one of my improved machines.

The same letters refer to like parts in both figures, and the arrows therein indicate the directions in which the parts move.

My invention consists of a certain combination and arrangement of parts hereinafter fully described and illustrated by the annexed drawings, whereby the requisite semicircular reciprocating movements are given to the paring knife, A, from a revolving shaft, C, which is geared, substantially as herein set forth, with the revolving applefork, B; by which combination and arrangement of parts the rate of the movement of the knife while cutting or moving from the rear to the front of the apple may be readily varied, in two certain different ways or by two different adjustments of the contrivances used, in respect to the rate of the rotary motion of the apple-forlr,-so that the machine is conveniently altered so as to be accurately suited for paring apples of dierent sizes.

By turning the toothed wheel D, the apple-fork, B, is revolved, in one constant direction and position by means of a pinion E fast on the shaft, f, of the apple-fork; and the horizontal shaft C is also at the same time revolved by means of a band, g, passing around a grooved cone-pulley H fast on the shaft I of the main-wheel D and around a matched grooved cone-pulley, J, fast on the shaft C. As the shaft C revolves, it turns with it a pulley or drum, K, on that shaft, so as to wind up on the drum, a cord L,one end of which is fast to the drum K and the other to a lever, M, which is fastened to a vertical block or axis N, pivoted at 0 o to the fixed and general frame-work P of the machine; and to which part N, the paring knife A is secured by means of the usual spring rod, g, (which allows the knife to conform in some degree to the irregularities of each apple and to operateon apples of various siZes:)-so that while the cord L is being wound up, the knife is then being carried forward, from its position at the back of the fork, (shown lin full lines in Fig. 1,) in a semicircular course, and along the apple to its front end, as indicated by the dotted lines in Fig. l, the motion of the knife being kept steady by a pull-back spring, R.

The drum K is loose on the shaft C but is kept in firm connection with it, while winding up the cord L, by means of any suitable self-acting clutch, as by means of a pin, s, fast in the drum, and another pin, t, fast in the shaft C,-the two pins being kept engaged by means of a spring, U, that presses the drum in the direction pointed by the arrow e. Then the knife reaches the front end of the apple, the outer end of the lever M then pushes against the drum K so as to slide it in the reverse direction to that pointed by the arrow a, into its position shown by dotted lines in Fig. l, and thus disengages the clutch-pins, s, t, and allows the pull-back spring, R, to instantly pull back the knife A to its position at the shank of the fork, and by the lever M, to unwind the cord L and turn the drum K back in the direction pointed by the arrow y, and lets the spring U slide the drum K so as to reengage the clutch-pins, so that the drum K will be again turned forward by the shaft C.

V is a loose pulley to guide the cord L as it runs on and off from the drum; which latter should be large enough to give the forward motion to the knife without winding t-he cord L more than once around it.

By running the band g in different grooves in the set of cone-pulleys H J, the rate of the forward motion of the paring knife A is varied without altering the rate of the rotary mot-ion of the apple-fork. And the rate of the forward motion of the paring knife is also varied by securing the cord L in dierent holes, w, or at different distances from the center of motion, of the lever M; so that by these two modes of adjustment the rate of the forward motion of the knife can be conveniently varied in relation to the rat of the rotary motion of the l C, band g and pulleys H and j, and -Wheels apple-fork, so as to accurately it the machine D and F and apple-forkJ B, substantially as 10 for paring apples of dierent sizes. y and for the `purposes herein described. J What I claim as neuT and of my invention f 5 'and desire to secure by Letters Patent is- RICHARDSON P CLARK The combination and arrangement of the Witnesses:

paring-knife, A, lever g N M, spring R, cord THos. P. CORNELIUS, L, clutch-drum K, and spring U, With shaft AUSTIN F. PARK. f: 

